Thought processes and conversations started under the tilted cap of Tropicana Field. Someday everyone will know the Rays play in St. Petersburg, Florida, not TAMPA, or the fictitious city of TAMPA BAY.

Tropicana Field’s Tract has an Unfortunate History, but Maybe Not “Cursed”.

When people asked me if Tropicana Field is cursed, I sometimes do not know what to tell them. I guess it depends on what you consider a “curse”, and what you consider a flaw in judgment or design. Either way, I think the tilted cap in St. Petersburg, Florida has had it run of bad luck, obscure historical factions, and maybe a few disgruntled former residents both in and out of the dirt.

The word “cursed” to me definitely bring out negative energy, and with the rash of recent injuries, some downright insane, I can see the logic for people thinking this place might need a exorcism or sage cleansing ritual. Cursed is a powerful word. One that drums up evil intentions and vibrations that can come from both above or below the sandy soil of this region. For that matter, possibly the Trop is cursed per se, but only because of the past inhabitants or procedures done on this site before the stadium was erected.

People forget the long history of the corner of 16th Street and First Avenue South. Before the city of St. Petersburg decided to erect this futuristic arena to attract the eye of a Major League Baseball tenant to come play among the filtered Sun streams in 72 degree splendor, there was plenty of prior notion and movement that could have conjured up hostile spirits both dead and alive.

Some tales say a resident of a Caribbean nation practiced rituals condemning the new construction on the site of her former low-cost housing development bulldozed down after city officials ruled it was in the way of the progress of baseball. Whispers went through the wind that such rituals were performed on the construction grounds and might be the basis of any curse.

Still even earlier before the housing unit was even a figment in anyone’s mind, 3 different cemeteries called this area their final resting places. Oakland, Evergreen and Moffet occupied the rolling acreage that is now home to the cars, trucks of those gathering to watch Tampa Bay Rays games. These cemeteries held the final resting places of Civil War veterans, founding community leaders of this city, and was the local burial ground for the Sugar Hill and Gas Plant district long before the city spread out towards the Gulf waters.

In 1958, some 150 interned souls from the Moffet,225 from Evergreen were suppose to be transferred to the local Lincoln Cemetery to make way for the impending low-cost housing community. There is little or no reference to what might have happened to the souls who occupied plots in the Oakland Cemetery, even after the construction started on the Laurel Park housing complex. Ironically, this was the same complex razed in 1990 to make way for the new stadium.

People forget this site used to be the City of St. Petersburg’s Gas Plant site in which two steel towers supported massive natural gas cylinders that towered over the region long before the downtown development went skywards. The aftermath of this contamination left by the residue of decades of gas deposits made the soil more like muck and it’s leakage down into the soil cost the St. Petersburg taxpayer’s a large sum of money to clean this area up enough to build a stadium without health concerns now or in the future.

Even as construction began on the 175 off-ramp from I-275 in February 1976, a construction crew found old leg,arm and a ribcage while doing road prep. Old coffins, gravestones and even a human skull were discovered by road crews preparing the surfaces for the impending Interstate finger into the heart of the town. All within a Carlos Pena Home Run distance from the Trop’s Rotunda. Some even say unmarked graves, and their residents might still be scattered 6 feet under in and around the Trop’s location. But even if these interned souls linger under the asphalt and cement, this doesn’t make the Trop or the Rays “cursed”.

Sure bad vibes could still be lingering from past souls, displaced families and resident of Laurel Park, but that probably doesn’t have any relationship to the recent odd happenings with this team or its players. Will Rhymes fainting into the arms of First Base Coach George Hendricks did not show or maintain possession features. Jeff Keppinger getting blasted in his right foot by a foul ball while sitting in the Rays dugout doesn’t portray demonic intentions or a “curse” interaction.

Sometimes the action of someone saying a place is “cursed”, filled with negative energy or evil intent can spread like wildfire and then some begin to believe not only the hype, but the past lore that pre-dated this stadium. The recent run of bad luck or cursed behavior witnessed by the Rays players and their fans is more psychological than physical right now. Sure injuries are happening, but is the spirit of St. Petersburg founder John Williams causing them. Could a Civil War veteran be the cause of all this recent injuries, or is it just the plain fact this team has been riding a lucky star for so long, a little mis-guided mojo gets referred to as a curse.

It all depends on your beliefs on if the past leads us during our present, or if we are deemed to repeat the past complete with good, evil and occasional accidents guided by prior events or entities. I guess the reality is that each of us has to decide for themselves their own conclusions, reasonings or justifications for the recent injury plague. Whatever you final conclusion be it a curse, coincidence or just plain bad mojo, Tropicana Field will always have distractors, haters and people who want to conjure up this stadium’s evil catwalks, demonic light fixtures and the horrific sight of Raymond’s blue fur. Everyone has their opinion, but I do not think this team is cursed or even damned…….anymore.

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